A Guide to the Burt Gerding Papers, 1959-1980, 1994

The Burt Gerding Papers (1959-1980, 1994) document the activities of the Austin
Police Department during the tumultuous period of the mid-1960s to early 1970s.
During this time, the UT campus was alive with political activity and student
protests about the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. The Gerding Papers
highlight the political and social climate of the time, as well as the extensive and
oftentimes controversial police surveillance conducted on Austin political
activists.

Burt Gerding was a former lieutenant in the Austin Police Department known for his
role monitoring students and political activities at University of Texas at Austin
in the 1960s and early 70s. Gerding was born in Greenville, Texas and raised in
Dallas. Upon graduating high school, he joined the US Navy as a corpsman and served
in World War II. In 1950, after telling a friend in the Austin Police Department
(APD) that “anyone could be a cop,” Gerding took and passed the police entrance exam
to prove his point. He officially joined APD in March 1950. In 1953, Gerding became
a Sergeant with the APD Forgery Detail.

By the early 1960s, Gerding was promoted to lieutenant and lead the Criminal
Investigation Division. Assigned to the University District, he interacted
frequently with the UT Police Department and UT students. During the integration
movement of the early 60s, Gerding monitored pro-integration demonstrations and
protests, including the Wheedon service station incident and the Roy’s Drugstore
protest, which drew between 4,000 and 5,000 people.

Gerding also worked as an APD Intelligence Officer. In consultation with UTPD and the
FBI, Gerding monitored the activities of suspected campus radicals and leftist
student political activists. Through FBI agent and friend George Carlson, Gerding
worked with agents from the FBI’s secret Counterintelligence Program, known as
COINTELPRO. The program was established in 1956 to “expose, disrupt, misdirect,
discredit, or otherwise neutralize” American political groups that were considered
threatening or subversive. COINTELPRO most frequently targeted leftist groups,
including communist and socialist organizations, Black Power groups, and
anti-Vietnam-war groups.

In consultation with FBI agents, Gerding used controversial and sometimes illegal
counterintelligence techniques to monitor and disrupt leftist organizations and
activists on and around the UT Austin campus, including students and faculty
members. Common methods included legal harassment (such as excessive traffic stops),
divulgence of private personal information, vandalism, psychological warfare (such
as anonymous letters and propagation of false or misleading information), and
warrantless break-ins. Gerding frequently utilized the services of student
informants, many of whom were paid by the FBI, to report on the activities of
political activists, as well as campus events. Gerding extensively targeted the
leftist political groups Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Student
Mobilization Committee (SMC), and the Black Panther Party with the goal of
discrediting them and ultimately forcing them to disband or leave Austin.

In the early 1970s, Gerding was transferred to the APD Narcotics Division, where he
worked as a Narcotics Agent. After leaving APD, Gerding went to work for
Westinghouse Electric in Round Rock, Texas, where he did security work. Gerding died
in March 2013.

The Burt Gerding Papers (1959-1980, 1994) document the activities of the Austin
Police Department during the tumultuous period of the mid-1960s to early 1970s.
During this time, the UT campus was alive with political activity and student
protests about the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. The Gerding Papers
highlight the political and social climate of the time, as well as the extensive and
oftentimes controversial police surveillance conducted on Austin political
activists.

The UT Austin Student Political Activities (1959-1976, 1994) series includes
extensive clippings from political newspapers such as The Rag, as well as political
handouts for student groups including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the
Student Mobilization Committee (SMC), and the Young Socialists Alliance (YSA). The
series contains many photos of student meetings and protests, as well as film and
audio reels of protests. Police reports, legal information, and reports from
Gerding’s student informants are also included. Also in this series are police
surveillance videos that formerly comprised the Patrick McGarrigle Collection and
protest photographs that formerly comprised the Art Osborn Collection. This series
contains cassette tape recordings of a 1994 oral history interview with Gerding, as
well as a full transcript.

The Narcotics Division (1964-1973) series contains informational pamphlets on
narcotics laws and regulations, anti-drug handouts and other marketing materials,
and training materials for Narcotics Agents.

The Westinghouse Electric (1970-1980) series relates to Gerding’s position in
security at Westinghouse after his time with Austin PD. This series primarily
consists of security notes and surveillance photos, as well as labor, management,
and union publications.

Archivist’s note:

The materials formerly comprising the Art Osborn [92-337] and Patrick McGarrigle
[2001-164] Collections have been merged with the Burt Gerding Papers.